Te Hīkoi o Te Kiri

I head away early to climb Tamahunga from Pakiri over Te Hīkoi o Te Kiri. It’s a bluebird day.

I stop to snap the golden sunrise on Matakana Valley Road, and then kāhu | Australasian harrier feasting on a recently deceased rakiraki | duck, and then again on Pakiri Road to snap korukoru | wild turkey.

I park at the tennis courts, find the start of the track at the end of Bathgate Road, and then climb straight up through unrelentingly thick grass over farmland into a copse of pine that’s planted in thick squeelchy unavoidable mud, before descending sharply down, along the edge of a recently trimmed plantation, and into the Ōmaha Ecological Zone in delicious native bush.

The views over Pakiri and toward Bream Bay, Te Hauturu-o-Toi | Little Barrier, Aotea | Great Barrier, Taranga, Sail, Hen Island, and Mokohinau Islands, and then over Cape Rodney, Ōmaha, Takatū, Tāwharanui, and Kawau are exceptional.

Alongside the kāhu and korukoru I snap pūtangitangi | paradise shellduck, pīwakawaka | New Zealand fantail, and miss but hear miromiro | New Zealand tomtit and riroriro | grey warbler.

It’s a hearty 710 metre ascent over 14 kilometres and four-and-a-half hours, with 2,000 snaps and 63 keepers.